Keeping fit

Recently I wrote about a walk in which we discovered Braeview Crescent; it was just one of a number of decent walks we've been doing of late, walks that may be up to seven kilometres long and/or an hour and a half (or more).  Some of the time we've used the Intriguing Dunedin Walks books, but over the last three days we've done walks that we've just discovered for ourselves.

On Thursday we left the car opposite where the Monarch is berthed, down at the wharf, and did the old Crowl family trick of turning left, then right, then left again and so on. Nearly seven kms later we'd got all the way to the University area, walked around some of it and come back to the car via a different way.

On Friday we did a rather more adventurous - and more exhausting walk.  (The Thursday one had been almost entirely on the flat.)  This time we parked near my son and daughter-in-law's place in Helensburgh Rd, climbed up the street to discover that Wakari Rd ran across the top, walked right along that road for quite a distance (doing detours into Caleb Place and Joshua Place - yes, I know - and discovering that one of them had a little walk through a private garden that was open to the public).  Then, in due course, we went down Polworth Rd towards Burma Rd, which runs through the Ross Creek reserve.  We thought we'd give ourselves some variety and go through the bush, but the track we were on dropped off a small cliff in two different places, which wasn't ideal - so we backtracked onto Burma Rd, found the usual track that we've been on before and climbed back through that until we reached Cannington Rd.  Thought we'd be clever and take a shortcut through the golf course - and managed to, though with the dog in tow it seemed likely we might suddenly get thrown off the green.  Managed to find a gate to climb over and then did the relatively heavy climb back up to Helensburgh Rd.  Had a cup of coffee with our daughter-in-law after around two hours walking...

Today went out to Tomahawk, and climbed up it until we reached Centre Rd, which we then proceeded to climb until we'd done 3.5 kms of climbing.  What views!  The sea on one hand, the lagoon on the other, Saddle Hill in the distance, Brockville at the same level, fields, cows, horses, sheep (pong!).  All made all the better by a glorious sunny day.  Plainly the wind is strong up that way, however, as the macrocapras were bent almost completely over in places.  We were going to climb up to the monument that sits on one of the peaks, but there didn't seem to be a road to it from Centre Rd, so we went as far as the bend and came back again.  Got in the car and went back up to the Tautuku turn-off, and discovered the most wonderful old stone house down at the water level.   We'll have to do the Tautuku walk another day.

1. I talk to a horse (but he don't listen to me....)
2. Celia at the highest point we reached.
3. One of the views from on high.

Opera and Golf once more

Mizunogolf, it appears, is the user name of a member at Yahoo answers. This is the second time I’ve had occasion to visit this site recently, and on both occasions it’s turned out to be a rather odd experience. Mizuno is actually the trade name of a type of golf club, and I suppose it’s legit to name yourself in some connection with Mizuno golf, as though this was somehow a link from your life to those inanimate objects that are used to hit other inanimate objects. What does it say about Mizunogolf? Curious.
A while ago I wrote a couple of posts about opera and golf. To my surprise I found that there was actually an American opera called Il Giocatore (don’t ask why it has an Italian name), though it can hardly be said to be well-known, and that in another equally unwellknown opera Apollo 14, the game of golf is played on the moon. Yes, well. (I wrote the posts back in August, if you want to check them out. Just put ‘golf’ in the search engine at the top.)
It’s always fun to check out odd combinations in the Google search engine. After writing the above, I thought I’d try and see if any other golf/opera combinations turned up. One blogger said, ‘20 years from now I’ll probably be writing rock operas about golf or something…’, and in a review of the Opera San Jose’s production of Don Pasquale, the writer says: ‘There's a reason why opera buffs are just as fanatic about their sport as golfers are about theirs: like golf, opera is simply not perfectible. It's a zero-sum game of different disciplines--vocal, orchestral, theatrical, visual--all fighting each other for scraps.’
He then goes on to tell us that the producer made the tenor run up a flight of steps just before his top note, and the soprano had to perform a puppet play while singing one of those notorious full of flight Donizetti arias. Hmm.

Golf and Opera

Okay, you opera buffs, the second act of what opera ends with the following event?
Shepard hits a couple of golf balls and Mitchell throws an improvised javelin.
Give up? You should, since unless you’re really into obscure American operas, you won’t know that this comes from an opera D C Meckler composed at the beginning of this century called Apollo 14: a space opera.
Meckler’s opera is about three men who land on the moon (where one plays golf, briefly), and about the dramatic contrast between their reactions to the space travel. `Mitchell began to rethink the potential of human consciousness. Shepard’s reaction was more about satisfaction and achievement after years of work and frustration, all topped off by the first golf swing on the lunar surface. Roosa said he was unchanged by the experience.’
The opera has never been performed in its entirety, yet, but sections of it have been showcased. There are female parts in it too: Shepherd and Mitchell have ‘inner voices’ sung by sopranos.
And if you thought no other opera was likely to include golf, then think again. Joyce Whitelaw and Eddie Orton wrote Íl Giocatore,'' around the same time as Meckler was working on his opus, and it requires the cast not only to sing about golf, but to play the game in one scene that’s set in the Loch Lomond Golf Club. It was first performed in the Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley on Nov 14th, 2000.

On the search for cufflinks

While we’ve been in England we’ve been going to a lot of car boot sales and op shops, as I’ve mentioned on my Travel Blog.
One of the things I’ve been looking out for, apart from books of course, are pairs of cufflinks. At home I have a collection of some sixty pairs (I’d guess), and I’m always on the lookout for more. I don’t go for the fancy and expensive ones, the shiny gold jewellery that’s back in fashion. Rather my idea of a cufflink is a fun item, one that is either outrageously ridiculous (those large coloured ‘stones’ that have no gem value whatsoever) or ones that have been put out by a company or organisation, or ones that are just plain fun, like a pair - a rather large pair, in fact - I got yesterday in Diss which have four blokes playing various homemade musical instruments on them. And then there’s the pair that aren’t a pair: a golf club and ball. Or the ones that took us some time to figure out in the shop. The volunteer in the op shop and myself were puzzling over them until my wife came up and said: They’re computer mouses. And they were.

The anonymous Navy Man

A couple of blogs I didn’t find via Link and Blog come from a guy who’s a retired US Navy man. Don’t know what rank, because he doesn’t give much information away about himself. All I know is that he likes golf, and the Star Wars movies, doesn’t read a lot, but likes country music. He now works in a convenience store chain.
He turned up on myLot asking for people to do reviews of his two blogs, one of which focuses on Net tech stuff, and the other on ways to make money on the Net. Both worthy topics.
I felt he just didn’t give enough of himself away on the blogs. Maybe I’m a person who lets ‘me’ appear a lot when I’m writing; this guy is a bit reticent for my taste, but maybe that’s an okay thing. Not everyone of us has to hang it all out. (Actually, I don’t really do that. If you think the blog is personal, you should see my journals. You won’t!)
Anyway, click here for the Tecchie site, and here for the Moneymaking one. Both are worth a look.

Michael Hill: Golfer

So Michael Hill Jeweller has become Michael Hill Golfer, building a top-notch golf course in his backyard - literally. His recently completed Hills Golf Course is already rated to be one of the best golf courses in the world.
Hill is making a new kind of name for himself. Not content to offer just an international violin competition each year, he’s now succeeded in getting the NZ Golf Open held at his new course for the next three years. This is a substantial coup, especially since the NZ Open hasn’t been held in the South Island since 1985.
Queenstown, which is just up the road from Arrowtown, where the Golf Course is situated, is increasingly become the playground of the rich and famous. Already it has to be regarded as the number one tourist town – in the South Island at least – and international cricket games have taken place there for the last few years. On top of that, an enormous amount of building development is taking place, increasing the population of what was little more than a village a few years ago substantially.
But back to the subject of golf. No doubt some of the players at this new course will be using Ping golf equipment, Ping accessories and Ping apparel. Ping – which I must admit, seems an odd name for golfing equipment, has been creating exceptional signature merchandise for more than 40 years.
I’ll probably be sticking with ping-pong.